Known and Unknown by Donald Rumsfeld

Known and Unknown is tendentious rather than instructive. The reader who wades in should expect a long, hard slog, with little likelihood of emerging on the far side appreciably enlightened.
-Financial Times

Discover the enhanced e-book edition of Known and Unknown offering an unprecedented reading experience for a memoir by a major public figure. For web-connected readers, it features more than 500 links to never-before-available original documents from Donald Rumsfeld's extensive personal archive. It includes State Department cables, correspondence, and memoranda on topics such as Vietnam, Watergate, the days following 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and much more. Available in ePub and Adobe Reader.

Like Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown pulls no punches.

With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history: his experiences growing up during the Depression and World War II, his time as a Naval aviator; his service in Congress starting at age 30; his cabinet level positions in the Nixon and Ford White Houses; his assignments in the Reagan administration; and his years as a successful business executive in the private sector.

Rumsfeld addresses the challenges and controversies of his illustrious career, from the unseating of the entrenched House Republican leader in 1965, to helping the Ford administration steer the country away from Watergate and Vietnam, to bruising battles over transforming the military for the 21st century, to the war in Iraq, to confronting abuse at Abu Ghraib and allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Along the way, he offers his plainspoken, first-hand views and often humorous and surprising anecdotes about some of the world's best known figures, from Margaret Thatcher to Saddam Hussein, from Henry Kissinger to Colin Powell, from Elvis Presley to Dick Cheney, and each American president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush.

Rumsfeld relies not only on his memory but also on previously unreleased and recently declassified documents. Thousands of pages of documents not yet seen by the public will be made available on an accompanying website.

Known and Unknown delivers both a fascinating narrative for today's readers and an unprecedented resource for tomorrow's historians.

Proceeds from the sales of Known and Unknown will go to the veterans charities supported by the Rumsfeld Foundation.

DONALD RUMSFELD currently chairs the Rumsfeld Foundation, which supports leadership and public service at home and the growth of free political and free economic systems abroad, as well as charities that benefit the men and women of the U.S. armed forces and their families.

Guardian

Reviewed by Philippe Sands
on
Mar 05 2011

...we cannot know whether the conversation he shares is accurate or complete, and therein lies this book's greatest problem. The reputation for competence and rigour is by now so shot to bits that we don't know what is fact and what is unfact.

WSJ online

Reviewed by ROBERT SCALES
on
Feb 08 2011

The book is crisply written, blending narrative detail with personal judgment and reflection. Mr. Rumsfeld begins by giving us a fine, if compressed, account of his life before becoming George W. Bush's defense secretary in 2001.

The Economist

Reviewed by The Economist
on
Feb 17 2011

People like Mr Rumsfeld don't write books for the money; they want to justify themselves. ..Beyond the failure to admit any guilt, which will disappoint only those who were expecting the improbable, this book is interesting and even enjoyable.

LA Times

Reviewed by Tim Rutten
on
Feb 08 2011

It's wearisome always being right, particularly when so many others are so wrong, so often — at least that's the impression a reader is most likely to draw from Rumsfeld's exhaustive, exasperating but vigorously written memoir, "Known and Unknown."

The Telegraph

Reviewed by Toby Harnden
on
Feb 11 2011

But this is a clearly written work that attempts to cut through a number of myths to give a measured account of how things happened and why. It will be of value to historians long after humdrum memoirs of the period have been forgotten.

Huffington Post

Reviewed by Marcus Baram
on
May 25 2011

But for the most part, Rumsfeld remains defiantly self-righteous about his tenure as Bush's Defense Secretary -- defending his often-criticized decisions and blaming almost everyone else for mistakes that were made...

Open Letters Monthly

The Daily Beast

Reviewed by Howard Kurtz
on
Feb 03 2011

While the bulk of Donald Rumsfeld’s memoir deals with weighty matters of war and peace, there are offbeat moments in Known and Unknown that provide glimpses of the Chicago native who twice ran the Pentagon.

The Daily Beast

Independent.ie

Reviewed by Independent House
on
Feb 19 2011

...despite Rumsfeld's cranky and dismissive public image, there are glimpses in the book of a more complex man, a kind-hearted husband who is devoted to his wife, Joyce, and a father deeply affected by the drug addiction of two of his grown children.

Book Forum

Reviewed by Eric Martin
on
Mar 08 2011

Boring aside, is the essay persuasive? Sometimes. He is persuasive about his passion for public service and the troops...But like many writers of persuasive essays before him, in the end he is intent only on victory and absolutely cannot be trusted.

Marine Corps Gazette

on
Feb 04 2016

For anyone wanting a review and analysis of many of the more pivotal events in U.S. history throughout the past 60 years, it would be found in former Secretary of Defense (SecDef) Donald H. Rumsfeld’s recently released book, Known and Unknown.